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I was a believer that silva is gonna dominate chris the 2nd time around(which isn't out of the realm of possibility) but the more and more i think about it and watch the last fight.... i'm more inclined to believe that chris has a good chance of repeating the same outcome as the first. regardless of the outcome chris is obviously a respectable fighter. he hasn't argued with silva's immediate rematch.. he imo revels in the opportunity to shut silva down again. that is something that i respect a lot. this fight is going to be awesome regardless of the outcome. i'm excited.

people misconstrued what I was talking about when I said "heart of a champion" as opposed to "heart of an accountant" when I was talking about Anderson. I wasn't hating. He's an amazing fighter, but he became part of the promotion machine the first time he refuted a rematch.

Weidman is young, and has a lot to prove, but I'm literally reveling in his interviews right now. Just a guy who is entirely thrilled with the idea of testing himself against the very, very best available. That, to me, is the very definition of the heart of a champion.

If Chris wins, I hope he resists the inevitable bullshit of the PR machine as long as humanly possible.

rh

All manner of men came to work for the News: everything from wild young Turks who wanted to rip the world in half and start all over again -- to tired, beer-bellied old hacks who wanted nothing more than to live out their days in peace before a bunch of lunatics ripped the world in half.

people misconstrued what I was talking about when I said "heart of a champion" as opposed to "heart of an accountant" when I was talking about Anderson. I wasn't hating. He's an amazing fighter, but he became part of the promotion machine the first time he refuted a rematch.

Weidman is young, and has a lot to prove, but I'm literally reveling in his interviews right now. Just a guy who is entirely thrilled with the idea of testing himself against the very, very best available. That, to me, is the very definition of the heart of a champion.

If Chris wins, I hope he resists the inevitable bullshit of the PR machine as long as humanly possible.

rh

I watched as many interviews as I could find, he comes off as a really likeable and classy guy. He's my new man crush now that GSP is gone lol

"I grew up in a decently tough neighborhood," says Weidman as transcribed by MMAFighting. "I grew up getting bullied and fighting a lot. My brother was probably one of the toughest kids from my neighborhood and he didn't make it easy on me. He made sure I was getting beat up as much as possible growing up. If he wasn't beating me up, he was making his friends beat me up. He threw a 10 pound weight on my head because I wouldn't get him a cookie. Split my forehead open pretty good."

"I think any type of setback you have, any tough time you've got, getting through it is what makes you who you are. It makes you a tougher person. I think whatever you've been through in your life makes you a tougher person. I'm very grateful for the background I have, every tough situation I've been through because it's made me who I am."

"I was severely bullied... I didn't really even think about it as bullying up until a year or two ago when I gave an anti bullying speech, and I realized holy crap I was really badly bullied."

“I’m prepared to do anything necessary to win this fight. I’ve trained everything. Obviously I have the wrestling. I feel like I have a very strong ground game that’s been really underestimated. So, I’ve been sharpening the things that I want to, that I feel like I need to,” said Tate. “But, you know, I just really want to punch her. And I would love nothing more than to get my first clean knockout with my hands on national television on the biggest pay-per-view…that would be amazing for me. I’d love it if she’d stand and trade with me. But I don’t think that she’ll want to, so we’ll see what happens.”

To elude making mistakes and not let her emotions get the best of her come fight night, Miesha’s chosen to treat her arch rival as just another opponent.

“She’s just going to be a body. A body in the way of my title and that’s the way I want to keep it. I want to stay emotionally uninvested. I want to get the knockout because I want to prove I’m that much better than her. That’s just a personal goal, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with the fact that she is somewhat an arch nemesis. It’s just what I want to do.”

Whether or not it was 'close' is pretty subjective and depends on what your definition of close is. I mostly agree with your analysis (especially regarding the first round) but I'll add a bit of my perspective to it.

In the second round Anderson stuffed Weidman's takedown (I think there was just one) pretty effectively, and at least for me it felt like there was a little shift in momentum after this. Anderson started to get loose (in retrospect, obviously TOO loose) and open up with his standup and for me it felt like it was just a matter of time for Chris at that point. Anderson also just missed on some possible fight ending kicks.

Now, you could argue Chris is that good and meant for him to just miss, and you could argue that the shift in momentum was just my own perception, and I wouldn't be able to say you are wrong. Objectively it was not close because Chris did everything that mattered, but subjectively it felt close to me.

My point is that I felt that fight showed that either man could have won that night, and that either man could win in the rematch, without anything (health, gameplan, experience) changing.
...which in of itself is a testament to Weidman's performance seeing as he was a major underdog in popular opinion, and is now probably close to even.

I agree with this.

And just look at the punch Weidman landed that KO'd Anderson. It was a good punch, but it wasn't some great left hook or anything...and the combination itself wasn't that great, he just threw enough punches together to where Anderson couldn't lean back anymore (as he was clowning). He got hit by Henderson in their fight with a big right hand and didn't get phased. He just had himself in a terrible position vs Weidman...and he was definitely scoring with kicks effectively in the 2nd, though neither guy was landing good punches up until the KO.

Originally Posted by rivethead

people misconstrued what I was talking about when I said "heart of a champion" as opposed to "heart of an accountant" when I was talking about Anderson. I wasn't hating. He's an amazing fighter, but he became part of the promotion machine the first time he refuted a rematch.

Weidman is young, and has a lot to prove, but I'm literally reveling in his interviews right now. Just a guy who is entirely thrilled with the idea of testing himself against the very, very best available. That, to me, is the very definition of the heart of a champion.

If Chris wins, I hope he resists the inevitable bullshit of the PR machine as long as humanly possible.

rh

Great points but at the same time it is a pretty big money fight as well for Chris.

One of the main questions for me is how good is Weidman's gas tank, Anderson never seems to get tired. I can see Weidman dominating a couple of rounds on the ground and then fading and Anderson lighting him up in the 3rd.

Same here. IMO, Weidman appeared to be gassing in the second round probably due to adrenaline dump. Hopefully that is not an issue in this fight.